Friday Review (4/10/26)
Each week we compile a list of helpful articles from other sites, in a variety of categories, for youth workers to read, reflect on, and/or discuss with parents and volunteers. If you have any articles you’d like to suggest, we’d love for you to share those in the Youth Pastor Theologian Facebook group. That’s a great way to bring them to our attention and to discuss them with like-minded youth workers! (Inclusion in this list does not imply complete agreement with the publishing source, but we have found these articles to be beneficial.)
Youth Ministry
How Do Older Adults Invest in Young Adult Ministry?, by PJ Dunn (Lifeway Research)
Yet while churches often focus on how to reach young adults, they tend to give far less attention to investing in the leaders who are called to serve them. The answer is not launching another program. It’s investing in people. Here are five ways senior adults can invest in young adult ministry in your church.
Discipling Students After Spiritual Highs, by Joshua Madl (Rooted)
For the church, and particularly for youth pastors, learning to disciple students after spiritual highs is a necessary task. How do we best steward the spiritual good accomplished over those weekends and sweat-soaked summer weeks?
Biblical & Theological Studies
The Day Between Loss and Glory, by Kirsten Black (Faithful Paradox)
As we wait for the glory of Sunday, we live through Saturday. I’m grateful to know the disciples endured the pain of Saturday, even though little is said about that day. I’m also grateful they got to experience the joy of promises fulfilled on Sunday.
Sex Is Worship, by John Piper (Desiring God)
This is the dimension suggested by the fact that our body is a temple. It’s a temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple was a sacred place of worship. The issue in the temple wasn’t whether you’re killing people or not; it’s whether you’re pure.
Cultural Reflection & Contextualization
What Will It Undo? AI, Language, and the Stewardship of Speech, by Laura Ruth (Reformed Dogmatika)
The broad cultural adoption of LLMs has obviously changed current communication. It has discipled some of us to elevate efficiency and productivity, much like the World does. Living in a fast-paced culture that elevates instant pleasure and efficient processes is difficult to combat.
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science, by Thomas Plümper and Eric Neumayer (The MIT Press Reader)
Both scientists and the public lose confidence in science when there is a non-trivial chance that scientists manipulated empirical results to support the arguments, theories, hypotheses, and stories they wish to corroborate, or to cast doubt on the arguments, theories, hypotheses, and stories that contradict the worldview they believe in.
Pastoral Ministry
Pastor, Pray for Your People, by Reuben Bredenhof (Reformation21)
Theologically, of course, we affirm the importance of prayer. We know that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (Jas 5:16). Yet I fear that among pastors there is a prevalent habit of neglecting this holy activity.
Advice for New Elders: Take the Low Seat, by Ryan Curia (The Gospel Coalition)
If you’re a new elder, you may feel tempted to prove yourself. Taking the low seat means resisting that urge. Here are three ways new elders can do that.
Family & Parents
What Makes Me A Christian Dad?, by D.V. Rider (Everyday Theology)
Because when I ask myself, what makes me a Christian dad, I’m not really asking whether I have Christian content in my home. This is usually how we start in this conversation. Indeed, I’m asking whether Christ has actually laid hold of me deeply enough that even my fatherhood has been bent into a different shape.
The End of the Free-Range, Device-Free ‘Stand by Me’ Childhood, by Sarah Wildman (The New York Times)
I, too, was struck by the sheer wildness once permitted children. The autonomy of the boys in “Stand by Me” is vastly different from the freedoms allowed a child living in 2026, when each is practically AirTagged, when we can track a car or a person’s phone across a map on a device in our palms, when we can know each moment of every day where each and every person in our home can be found.
From YPT this week
ep.136: Talking with Youth About School & Honoring Graduates
School consumes a significant portion of our students’ lives. How do we help youth think biblically about education… and how do we celebrate graduates well?
How to Teach Difficult Scriptures: Elisha and the She-Bears, by Ryker Lutjens
How in the world do we make sense of Elisha and the she-bears, who mauled 42 youths?
